School forum focuses on discrimination issues, fear

"Look through someone else’s eyes and don’t let the shock of what happened get to you." -Shandy Walton

By: Nick D’Amore
   Parents, students and township officials gathered together Monday night to discuss profiling and discrimination issues stemming from the Sept. 11 tragedy.
   The event was coordinated by the Affinity Club, which is a group of South Brunswick High School students that deal with diversity issues in the school environment, said member Ravi Shah.
   The group mostly focused on issues of discrimination and prejudice against Muslim and Arab people in the face of recent events here and abroad.
   To spur discussion and debate, some recent Doonesbury comic strips were passed out, that depicted some of the issues facing Americans as they deal with one another in these chaotic times.
   The first strip showed a man seated next to an Arab man and the profiling and prejudice that people may be susceptible to.
   The group discussed their feelings on flying immediately after the tragedies and their own profiling tendencies.
   "I flew right after the planes were up again and it was quite an experience," said Jan West, a parent. "I’m embarrassed that I had similar thoughts."
   Councilman Frank Gambatese said profiling is something inherent to American culture because of the variety of ethnicities and backgrounds.
   "You don’t see it as much other countries because they’re all from that country. We’re always on guard when we see someone different," he said.
   Mr. Gambatese said the older generations were counting on young people to straighten out what the adults have done with the world.
   "We adults haven’t done a very good job," he said.
   Tanya Santana, a parent, said the face of the "typical American" changes often.
   "The people that look different are becoming the face of Americans and are just as American as the typical American," she said.
   At the end of the first comic strip, the man who has struggled to not assume the Arab man seated next to him is another terrorist feels guilty when he learns the Arab man is en route to visit his mother.
   Mayor Debra Johnson said she did not think people should feel guilty for profiling initially.
   "I’m not sure that in these dangerous times, thinking cautiously is a bad idea. It is not unnatural. The problems come when people are cruel for no reason," she said.
   Shandy Walton, a senior, said people should not let the recent events limit their view of others.
   "It’s not easy in society when you’re profiled. Muslims are going through the same things as Jews and blacks. Look through someone else’s eyes and don’t let the shock of what happened get to you. You have to broaden your horizons," she said.
   Brian Santana, a sophomore and Ms. Santana’s son, said profiling rejects the framework of our government.
   "It denies the freedoms we live by in the Constitution. It is based on ignorance," he said.
   Steve Folkes, a senior, said profiling stems from the way people learn.
   Some older members of the audience related their experiences with prejudice and profiling. Mr. Gambatese echoed those sentiments saying he grew up with a narrow view of the world, having grown up primarily among other Italians.
   "I was suspicious of anyone different, and it affected my children. I had to change. I have to be able to experience the other person," he said.
   He said most of his children have married non-Italians.
   Ms. West discussed her grandparents’ tendency to label people different from their Russian-Jewish heritage.
   "Yet they came to America out of great hardships and prejudice," she said. "Fear of others results in profiling."
   Monica Manguao said profiling can show itself in less obvious ways, especially in the high school setting where people can be labeled based on their appearance and other subtle ways.
   "People are comfortable with what they know," she said.
   Mayor Johnson said profiling comes from the need of people to feel they are better than others even within the same race or background, citing caste systems and the situation in Bosnia with Serbians and Croatians.
   The media’s role in profiling and generalizing certain groups was also discussed.
   Ravi said the media has not given the full story when dealing with the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
   "They universalize the terrorists as all of Afghanistan. Maybe 1 percent of people there are terrorists, but the others 99 percent are innocent bystanders," he said.
   He said another major problem is people buy into everything they read and see and draw conclusions based on first instincts.
   Mr. Gambatese disagreed. He said the media has gone out of its way to show that the Afghan people are against their own government.
   "I thought that they’ve tried to be balanced," he said.
   Monica agreed, but said the media has been lax at times.
   "When they showed those people celebrating in Palestine, they didn’t show the whole country. That’s profiling in a way," she said.
   Ms. Santana said people should remember that the news media is a business.
   "We have to challenge ourselves to go beyond headlines and investigate the facts," she said.
   The group also discussed profiling issues closer to home in South Brunswick.
   Mayor Johnson said while such issues exist, they are not accepted as the norm in South Brunswick.
   She said South Brunswick has been proactive, having desegregated schools before the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education lawsuit. She said two of the only black mayors in the history of Middlesex County have come from South Brunswick.
   Kareisha Questel, a junior, said the township is becoming more diverse, but that one bad person can start represent the entire group as a whole.
   "Groups get punished for other people’s mistakes."
   She said being at the high school allows the students to learn from each other.
   "It’s not as bad here as it is on the outside," she said.